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The National (Scotland)
The National (Scotland)
Sport
Aidan Macdonald

Packie Bonner praises Brendan Rodgers' influence on Matt O'Riley

Former Celtic goalkeeper Packie Bonner has praised Brendan Rodgers for how he has developed Matt O'Riley's game.

The midfielder has started every game so far this season for the Scottish champions, scoring six times and providing three assists.

And Bonner feels Rodgers has taken the Dane's game to the next level.

He told BBC: “[Rodgers] maybe changed slightly the position of him and in relation to what he was doing under Ange [Postecoglou].

"He was playing very, very high and staying high and now he is asked to go a little bit deeper at times but he is still making those runs into the box and the timing of those runs is magnificent.”

Meanwhile, Dermot Gallagher has delivered his verdict on Celtic's penalty award against Hearts on Sunday.

Brendan Rodgers' side were awarded a spotkick by referee Nick Walsh after striker Kyogo Furuhashi was brought to the ground by Alex Cochrane.

Celtic ended up running out 4-1 winners at Tynecastle but after the game Hearts boss Steven Naismith expressed his frustration over the penalty award.

He said: "For me it's not a penalty. It's one that the referee has made a call, but we're meant to be eradicating these decisions from the game.

"Every week, we're still talking about 'is it a penalty, is it not?'

"It's clearly not. Kyogo knows what he's doing, he's being intelligent.

"If anything, Kyogo blocks Alex getting to the ball."

Ex-whistler Gallagher dismissed Naismith's theory today on Sky Sports News as he reacted to the incident.

He said: "Kyogo is clever, he puts himself between the ball and Cochrane. Cocharane gets a hold of him and the referee gives a penalty."

Fellow Sky pundit Stephen Warnock was not in agreement though. He claimed: "I didn't think it was a penalty, I think he bought it completely, it's just the centre forward trying to be clever but watch the defender, he doesn't really leave too much in there. Not for me."

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